This afternoon, the men's hockey
semi-finals start. It's the Olympic version of the Frozen Four, and the
first time since Sunday that a loser still has something to play for,
as the losers of today's game faceoff tomorrow for the bronze medal.

In
other words, just by making it here teams have a 75 percent chance of
winning a medal. That is frankly probably good enough for Slovakia, but
not for the other three teams.

This is Finland's last chance to
get favourite son Teemu Selanne a gold medal. Team USA earned the top
seed, so anything less than a silver will be a disappointment.

And of course, for Team Canada, anything less than a gold is devastating. An entire nation may go into depression for months.

(Then
again, with only one gold medal in my lifetime, and even only one in
the three previous Olympics in which professionals were allowed to
play, they should be used to it. I know, that was mean, but you don't
see the United States losing in the Olympics at our game,
basketball...oh, wait, nevermind!)

Let's examine the quarterfinals to get a glimpse of where these teams are:

Switzerland-United States: Team USA ran into a wall Wednesday, and its name was Jonas Hiller. Hiller
actually knocked the first goal in himself before the second period
horn sounded, but replays clearly showed it had not crossed the line
before the clock was all zeros, making this the first contest to be 0-0
through two periods.

Zach Parise managed a goal that stood in the third, then both
teams appeared to score without a whistle in between. The Swiss put a
shot past Ryan Miller that went off the post but in live speed appeared
to cross the line. With play continuing, America then scored on the
same shift, but was called for a penalty as the shot was en route to
the net.

Goaltending was the story: Miller ended up with an 18-save shutout, and Hiller turned away 42 of the 43 shots he faced (Parise got an empty netter with 11 seconds left). A young Team USA never lost their composure or wight of their gameplan, and eventually overwhelmed their overachieving opponent.

Canada-Russia:
I told you Russia was overrated (hey, I have so few things to brag
about in this Olympic hockey tournament, so deal with it!). I never
understood how a team that had third and fourth lines that couldn't
even start in the NHL and a blueline that had only a couple guys who knew how to play defence (they seem to think the position is called "offenceman") got so much dap.

Oh,
yeah, because everyone is enamoured with offence. But like I said, the
medal games are played tightly and Canada had the defence to shut down
Alexander Ovechkin's line, without which the depth-challenged Russians
could not stay with Canada.

And it did not help that Evgeni
Nabokov was off his game, or that he was left out there even after
showing it in giving up four first period goals. At least he will get
some rest before the San Jose Sharks need him.

Czech Republic-Finland:
The highly-skilled offence of the Czechs could not put one shot past
Miikka Kiprusoff, and the Finns scored just enough to put this one away.

Slovakia-Sweden:
Henrik Lundqvist, who had not given up a goal in almost nine periods,
yielded four goals in five shots at one point, allowing the tired
Slovaks to earn their first trip to the final four, gritting out this
win after a disappointing showing against a second-rate Norwegian squad.

Sweden's
loss was a gift to Canada, who having played more games would have had
a tough time against the true second-best team in the tournament. It
was the third straight time that the previous gold medal winner was
eliminated in the quarterfinals of the next Olympics.

Here is a look at today's matchups:

Finland-United States: America gets the slight edge in this one because we are considered the home team, giving us the last line change and faceoff
advantage. However, the two teams are very even, with the Finns having
a scoring edge and the Americans having the better defence. Both
goaltenders are extraordinary.

Ultimately, Team USA has shown such an impressive work ethic and plays so well in its own end that I give them the edge...USA 3, Finland 2, OT.

Slovakia-Canada:
The sleeping giant has awoken, and that does not bode well for the rest
of the teams. The best hope for everyone else is that Canada gets
overconfident or commits too many penalties against a much lesser
Slovakian team. However, I am not projecting that, and even if it does
happen, I think our northern neighbours have enough of an edge in all
three units (forwards, defence, goaltending) to overwhelm the Slovaks...Canada 6, Slovakia 2.